Dreaming of Summer

Yesterday it was pissing down rain, so TCM nicely programmed two films to take my mind off the ark that I might have to build. The first film was Summertime, starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Katherine Hepburn played Jane, a lonely middle-aged spinister who finally takes her dream trip to Europe. While staying at a lovely Pensione, she meets a hot, age appropriae Italian played by Rossano Brazzi. She falls for him but he turns out be married (of course he does!). He accuses her of being afraid of life so she finally falls into his arms. But the idea of having an affair with a married man is too painful so she leaves Venice. He runs to say good-bye but just misses her. She sees that he's brought her a gardenia as a parting gift.

The film is actually shot in Venice which is one of my favorite places on earth, although I've only been there in the wintertime. While I was watching it, I thought that this would be a good film to remake, perhaps with Kathy Bates or Frances McDormand. It's a great role for an actress of a certain age. The male role is trickier, the only Italian actor I can think of who is well known is Roberto what's his face who won Best Actor for Life is Beautiful, and he would be awful in the role. Unfortunately Giancarlo Giannini and Marcello Mastroianni are dead. I suppose Jean Reno could play Italian.

The next film I watched was pure cheesy fun. Where The Boys Are is set during spring break in Fort Lauderdale in 1960.  This movie must have been cheesy even back then. 4 college girls head south to have fun and meet men. My impression is that they go to an all girl's college. The men they meet are a motley crew, one beatnik musician, another guy who calls himself TV, a rich guy, and Ivy leaguer who turns out to be a jerk. Dolores Hart plays Merrit who thinks there is nothing wrong with pre-marital sex although she realizes that she is not ready. Connie Francis is the ditzy one, Paula Prentiss plays the really tall athletic girl who gets dumped (briefly) for a bimbo, and Yvette Mimieux is the sweet, sexy one, who (although the film is not clear on this one) gets sexually assaulted by a friend of the guy she was dating.

This is another film that could be remade, say for ABC Family, starring Amanda Bynes and the bitchy chick from the remake of 90210.  Perhaps mix it up a little and make it multicultural. It's been a long time since I went to college, but I'm sure East Coast kids flee the frozen north during Spring break if not for FL than for the Carribbean or Mexico.

Its Not Raining Men

Remember that song from the Weather Girls in the 1980's, the one that Ginger Spice butchered in Bridget Jone's Diary? Well its raining here (again) in New York and there are no men to be seen. Or cats and dogs for that matter. Do you know that I went to buy an umbrella last week in this fancy store and they had brollies for $200? I'm sorry but for $200 that umbrella better make like Mary Poppins and carry me over the rooftops.

See the hottie to the left? That's my new Object of Lust. His name is Nathan Gunn and he's an opera singer. Yes, I said an opera singer, which is funny because I think that most operas sound like cats yowling. But he was so hot as Lancelot in Camelot for Live from Lincoln Center that I would willingly go to the Metropolitan Opera House to hear him sing. And he's wearing leather pants!

Unfortunately (like Clive) he's married and has 5 kids. He also lives in the middle of nowhere Illinois when he's not off making womens knees weak like mine. And he has an amazingly glorious baritone voice. Sigh!

What else did I do this merry May weekend? Well, I braved the monsoon on Friday to go to the MET museum to see the Superhero costume exhibit which was lamer than lame. The exhibition was supposed to be how superheroes have inspired fashion. Guess what? Not so much. I did see an absolutely lovely Dante Gabriel Rossetti of Lilith which I fell in love with. I'm a sucker for the pre-Raphaelites.

Saturday, I went to see a documentary on Philip Glass at The Philoctetes Center because I'm all about the culture. I admit that I'm not a huge fan of his music, its a little too atonal for me for the most part, but I enjoyed the documentary and I came away with a new appreciation for at least his newer music. Nothing could make me go see Einstein on the Beach, his opera however.

What really got to me was the aspects of his personal life that we got to see. Glass has been married four times, and his current wife, Holly had had enough of his constant work schedule. For all intents and purposes, she was a single mother raising two kids, while he flitted hither, thither, and yon with his music.

There were lots of scenes of him at his place in Nova Scotia and in New York but what struck me was how often they weren't alone as a family. Even their vacations were about his work. We also got to see a little bit of his spiritual quest, which involves Tao, Buddhism, Shamanism, etc. I found that interesting because again it seemed to be at a remove from personal relationsips.

It brought home the point that there has to be some kind of balance between creativity and ones personal life. One can't be at the expense of the other. Perhaps women are better than this than men, since we are pretty much born multi-tasking. I can remember going from a dance recital to a girl scout jamboree to traveling to our house upstate all in one day. I was the master of changing clothes in 60 seconds. All the female writers that I know, particularly those who have children, have set times for writing, and then its family time. It may mean they produce fewer books a year (although in Wendy Corsi Staub's case, it hasn't harmed her output) or they have the ability to write fast. I also have other friends who have chosen not to have kids because they don't feel they have the time or attention to give to them.

Both films that I've seen recently about male artists, Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, there seems to be no balance really, its all about the work. Robert Wilson didn't seem to have any real personal relationships or we didn't seem them in the film. It made me very sad to see the breakdown of Glass's' marriage in the film. Unfortunately we only got to see his wife's reaction to it and not his which I felt was a weakness in the film.

The rest of my weekend was spent doing research and watching old movies on TCM.